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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

Amelia Peabody can be summarized
by a few words: sensible, self-confident and self-sufficient. A Victorian lady
with the good fortune to have had a wealthy father, she is now pursuing her
interest in all things ancient and Egyptian by travelling that country armed
with her extensive fortune, an endless sense of determination and a stout
umbrella. She was accompanied by a suitably boring companion until their stay
in Rome, where the thoughtless woman developed a horrible disease and had to be
sent home to England. However, she came across another, more suitable
travelling companion in the form of the destitute, but beautiful, Evelyn
Forbes. Miss Forbes is a fallen woman, whose Italian lover has abandoned her
now that her grandfather has written her out of his will because of her
scandalous behavior.

Undeterred by Evelyn’s previous
poor judgment, Amelia rebuilds the poor girl’s wardrobe and self-esteem and
then they depart for Egypt. There they encounter the Emerson brothers and
Evelyn is smitten by the young of the pair, Walter, while Amelia detests the
elder brother, Radcliffe, on sight. They also meet Evelyn’s cousin, Lucas, who
brings news of their grandfather’s death and his position as the new heir. He proposes
marriage so that she will be allowed to inherit after all.

During their cruise down the Nile
the ladies re-encounter the brothers at their dig site and decide to stay to
help Radcliffe recover from a terrible infection. However, things at the dig
site are much more complicated that they would seem. A strange mummy begins to
haunt the dig, terrifying the local diggers and Lucas arrives to continue his
pursuit of Evelyn, much to Walter’s distress.

This series was one that I had
seen mentioned in some of the reviews for Gail Carriger’s Soulless, with
comments about the similarities in their settings and the heroine. While it is
true that both Amelia and Alexia have similarities in their general appearance
and temperament, and that both books are set within the Victorian era, I found several
differences between the two. While Ms Carriger maintains a cutting and
sarcastic tone, especially in the way that Alexia views the world, Ms Peters
gives Amelia a much more bombastic voice, with much less wit and bite. I also
found that the plotting and world building were handled very differently, with
Ms Carriger’s story ripping along at a good pace, whilst Ms Peters’ struggled
from far too much description and unimportant detail. The final difference that
was most obvious was the way in which the two authors handled the love-hate
relationship between the heroine and her leading man. In Alexia, we have a
woman who is constantly aware that she is lacking a soul and, therefore, is not
quite normal in her lack of emotionality. This gives her a unique perspective
on her growing feelings for Maccon, which she does not understand or trust, and
adds to the humor in the situation. In contrast, Amelia’s bloody-minded refusal
to recognize the obvious attraction between herself and Radcliffe becomes
simply irritating.

Even if we put aside the
comparisons with The Parasol Protectorate, we are left with a novel that is not
entirely satisfying. The plotting was dreadfully slow, with so much detail
about the preparations necessary for a trip down the Nile and then about the
trip itself, that I was tempted to skip over some sections. This is very, very
unusual for me, and shows how difficult it was for me to stay engaged with the
characters. I plodded along, convinced that there must be some significance in
the description of the pyramids, the decoration for their ship, what they were
wearing, what Amelia had in her first aid kit . . . but, alas, these proved to
be merely set dressing that a good editor would have hacked out with numerous
slashes of a red pencil. I can understand the desire to wax lyrical about a
subject dear to your heart, and I would probably do the same if I ever
attempted to write a novel set in Rome, either ancient or modern, but there is
a point at which one must stop describing the scenery and actually get on with
the action.

Unfortunately, the plot itself
was rather predictable, which made the unnecessary description even more
annoying. When I have read most of a book, where very little has happened, only
to have the ‘big reveal’ illicit nothing more than a disappointed eye roll I am
not a happy bunny. I expect some mystery in my mystery novels and a surprise at
the end when the cunning plan is revealed. This book had neither and left me
feeling like I had wasted my time plowing through all the pages up to that
point. Perhaps if the ‘eccentric’ British characters had been more witty and amusing
I would have been swept along, but they were actually pretty tame. There was also
very little use of the Egyptian and Italian characters, which left the story focused
on the four main characters and made it even more imperative that they be
entertaining.

On the whole, this was a
disappointing read for me and I am not sure that I can ascribe that entirely to
the book’s publication date of 1975.